NY baby still critical after mother killed by plow

Originally published February 14, 2014 at 2:53 pm
Updated February 14, 2014 at 5:01 pm

A baby boy delivered by emergency cesarean section after his mother was fatally struck by a mini-snowplow in a parking lot of a New York City shopping center remains in critical condition, a hospital spokeswoman said Friday, as a roommate for the woman revealed she'd been nervous about going out into the storm.

A baby boy delivered by emergency cesarean section after his mother was fatally struck by a mini-snowplow in a parking lot of a New York City shopping center remains in critical condition, a hospital spokeswoman said Friday, as a roommate for the woman revealed she’d been nervous about going out into the storm.

Min Lin, 36, considered staying home before she decided to go out in Thursday’s storm with her husband because she had an obstetrician’s appointment, roommate Song Qing Huang told the New York Daily News.

Lin was loading groceries into her car with her husband Thursday morning in the rear lot of a shopping center in Brooklyn’s Bay Ridge neighborhood when the driver of the small construction vehicle backed up, striking Lin, police said. About 9 ½ inches of snow had fallen on the city by Thursday morning.

The driver, identified by police as 42-year-old Wu Wu, was issued summonses Friday for not having the vehicle inspected and not having a headlamp or a license plate light. No criminal charges have been filed and police have said it appeared to be an accident. A phone listing for Wu could not immediately be located.

The nearly full term, 6-pound, 6-ounce baby remained in the neonatal intensive care unit of Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn Friday evening, hospital spokeswoman Jodi Cross said. Lin was rushed to the hospital by paramedics where she was pronounced dead. Her son was delivered in the emergency room.

Roommate Huang said Lin and her husband also had a young son.

“They are a very happy family,” Huang told The New York Times in Mandarin. “The son is so smart, the husband works so hard and he’s always so busy.”

Huang said her husband and Lin’s husband both worked for Chinese restaurants in New Jersey and came home about once a week.

Earlier this month, a privately owned vehicle that was plowing snow in Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach neighborhood struck and killed a 73-year-old man who was crossing mid-block as it backed up.